2nd Annual National Harmony Workshop: Celebrating Diversity

National Defense University (NDU), Islamabad organized 2nd Annual Workshop on Cultural Harmony” which lasted for four days i.e., from 22nd to 26th May 2017. The workshop was organized with the aim of enhancing integration among the Pakistani youth by increasing awareness on matters that pose serious challenges to the state at present. The core focus of the workshop remained enlightening the students and members from the academia to realize their role in bringing about national harmony by celebrating the diversity that the country has. Another focus area of the workshop was to celebrate the success of Manzil-e-Murad project, which was launched by the varsity in 2015, as a mission to provide a facilitating forum to various universities in the country to indulge in integrative engagement. In order to ensure such coalescing harmony, the audience of the workshop comprised of students and academics from all four provinces of Pakistan including Gilgit-Baltistan and FATA. From the four days of activity, two were dedicated to academic/intellectual lectures by esteemed professors, scholars, serving and retired armed personals and analysts on various issues of national concern and the last two days were dedicated to touring significant institutions.

An enriching learning experience as it was, numerous intriguing things came to surface. Patriotism seemed to flash from every drape of the green colored curtains that hung in the sitting area. Glorification of national prestige and honor scented the air, evident in the music played, the content spoken, in the choice of verses to begin the day and in the message from the President NDU. Before the commencement of the academic sessions, Lt. Gen. Rizwan Akhtar, President NDU, warmly welcomed the guests and expressed his gratitude to them for their presence. As he spoke highly of the Manzal-e-Murad project, Gen. Rizwan introduced the participants of the workshop to their responsibility as students and academics to celebrate the cultural and linguistic diversity in the country. Every word that the President NDU spoke in his brief welcome address was very well articulated with facets of nationalism, patriotism and a much needed sense of harmony.

 The first speaker for the academic session happened to be renowned Sufi Scholar Professor Ahmed Rafique Akhter. He shed light on how the idea of internal security had evolved over the years. In his talk, one could clearly notice the pride that he meant to induce in the audience regarding the glorious Muslim history. Professor Akhter embarked upon several factors in his session that he believed had led to a disintegration of the Pakistani society from within and thus has posed a challenge to its internal security. A major cause of this, the professor held, lied in the prevalence of ‘ammoralism’ in the society. In his view, the society had divided itself along religious lines with religious schizophrenics on one hand and ammoralists on the other. Ammoral in contrast with an immoral identified a society that suffered from ‘non-existence’ of values, ethics and moralities; an existence beyond right and wrong. It was through the mention of instances from all periods of history, that the Professor sang to the audience the tale of Muslim predominant distinctiveness. His idea of ammoralism and religious schizophrenia were looked upon with much intrigue by the audience.

 Other lectures by esteemed guests including Dr. Moeed Pirzada and Lt. Gen. Asif Yasin Malik further discussed the challenges to Pakistan’s national security spectrum and the significance of information handling and mishandling in the context. In the sessions that followed, a series of retired and serving military generals spoke of the present and emergent threats to national security and the operations carried out in troubled areas like Karachi and Baluchistan.  An interesting question and answer session followed each discussion.

The touring sessions that comprised the last two days of the workshop carried along an engaging learning experience coupled with entertaining visits to major institutions of national importance such as the Joint Staff Headquarters (JSHQ), the 10^th Corps Head Quarters, Heavy Industrial Complex, Taxila and Pakistan Aeronautical Complex, Kamra. The lectures delivered by the authorities in these institutes evidently meant to propagate among the audience a view that the defense of Pakistan is sufficiently guarded and lies in very safe hands.

The event altogether was an immensely amazing learning experience in all terms. The integrative collaboration among Pashtuns, Balochis, Kashmiris and people from other parts of Pakistan largely defied the existing perceptions about each other. On a forum with military and civil representatives, many critical questions were addressed, clearing the long held fog in the minds of the people. The interactive sessions between the participants over tea and lunches further made the workshop interesting. However, a broader media presence could have added to effectively propagate the message for a much needed drive for national harmony.

 It is certain from such an informative and exhilarating experience, that the next round for National Harmony Workshop will be looked forward to by all participants.    

Contributor Aizah Azam is MS student of Peace & Conflict Studies at the Centre for International Peace & Stability (CIPS) - National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST). This article is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views or policy of any particular institution or organization.

 

Hijrah and Refugees: The Basics

The unfortunate series of events, spread over years in Middle East has led million to abandon their homes and make efforts to move to safer place for their families. UNO has almost 4.8 million registered Syrian refugees alone, the number of refugees around the globe is almost three times this figure. This massive human flow has overwhelmed international aid agencies and neighboring countries.

As a misnomer, ironically multiple bloggers, websites and online newspapers are using migrants and refugees as synonyms. Some have gone a step farther and linked it with the Islamic concept of Hijrah. In this blog I will segregate these terms to be followed on discussion on allied aspects in subsequent blogs.

Migration is a deliberate and well planned movement of individuals to a place of better economic opportunity. Defining Laws of Migration, Ravenstein has highlighted the rules governing general migration within and across state boundaries. In this case the ‘pull factor’ or the attraction as defined by E. F. Kunz is much stronger.  Migrants have sufficient time to think, decide, plan and move. Absorption rate of such individuals is directly proportional to volume of economic opportunity at the destination. These migrants can go back to their places of origins if they so desire.

Refugees, on the other hand have been defined as individuals displaced outside the border of their native country under duress. The 1951 Refugee Convention, defines refugee as a person who,

[....] owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.

Therefore, refugees are people who have no choice but to abandon their abodes in a short span of time usually due to conflict. Natural calamities such as floods, earthquakes etc. might force people to become refugees but such a phenomenon are rare. Most of the times people displaced though natural disasters return to their homes as the living conditions improve. In most cases such individuals are not declared as refugees and might only be internally displaced. Right from the outset, refugees are deprived of the luxuries of ‘time’ and ‘decision’. They will almost never find time to decide where and when they might go. Their immediate worry is to abandon their home and save their own and their family’s lives. The ‘pull factor’ as mentioned in case of migrants is almost invisible and rarely in equation. The ‘push factor’ is however the greatest. This serious imbalance between the ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors forces international community to initiate action under The 1951 Refugee Convention. Once a wave has been declared as refugee (such as in case of Syrians and Iraqis) it is obligatory on international community to render all possible help.

Finally a few words about the Islamic concept of Hijrah. The word Hijrah is derived from the Arabic word Hajarah which means to part ways, abandon, to break ties with someone, to leave or to migrate. The discussion on the contentious concept of Hijrah is exhaustive in scholarly treatise and is spread over almost one and half thousand years of Islamic history. In subsequent blogs, I will be talking more extensively about these bones of contention and reasons for ongoing debate. The concept is not only misunderstood by many Muslims, but is also misconstrued by many western writers. With the massive flow of Middle Eastern refugees into Europe, the concept of Hijrah has again come up in debates. The real essence of the concept of Hijrah and arguably, how and why it is better than the modern day refugee law needs to be explicated. For now, it would suffice to say that the all the refugees pouring into Europe are not from Middle East (especially Iraq and Syria) nor all of them are Muslims. Therefore calling this massive dislocation as Hijrah is not only inaccurate but is adversely affecting the genuine refugee cause and the process of their rehabilitation.

Note: This article is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views or policy of any particular institution or organization. 

Contributor Waseem Iftikhar is a PhD researcher at Centre for International Peace and Stability (CIPS), at National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan.